1. Field
The following description relates to a technology for providing pictures, and more particularly, to a technology for providing pictures differentiated according to sharing levels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, it has become desirable and popular to share still or motion pictures between people. Methods of sharing pictures include, for example, directly transferring pictures which are printed on photographic paper or the like, transfer of digital images which are stored in storage media, sharing pictures through online services, such as FLICKR®, PICASA®, and the like, and sharing pictures through e-mail or a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
Pictures often contain personal information, thus, most sites that allow sharing of pictures also allow the user to control access to pictures according to user classifications. For example, in the case of FLICKR®, as shown in FIG. 1, access to each picture is controlled such that the picture is non-visible, visible only to friends, visible only to family, or visible to all. Other services also have settings similar to this.
However, in the example above pictures are shared through establishment of acquaintance relationships (such as “friend” relationships etc). Thus, pictures are either completely shared or not shared at all, according to the results of user authentication.